


The Unicorn Who Loved a Horse

by pauraque



Category: Tangled (2010)
Genre: Gen, Unicorns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-24
Updated: 2011-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-28 01:10:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/302084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pauraque/pseuds/pauraque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is how the legend goes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Unicorn Who Loved a Horse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meridianrose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianrose/gifts).



> Your letter mentioned you like fairy tales and Maximus being awesome, so I hope this works!

Once upon a time there was a unicorn who strayed from the herd. She was young and curious-minded, and did not listen to her elders' warnings not to go near mankind.

One day when she was exploring a farm, she saw a handsome stallion grazing in his pasture. She felt sorry for the stallion being trapped inside the fence, and asked him why he did not try to jump over and escape. But, being a horse, he did not speak her tongue. Yet she saw that his gaze bespoke longing, so she leaped over the fence to go to him, and though it is forbidden, the unicorn and the stallion were united.

Later that year the unicorn gave birth to a foal. When the rest of the herd saw that the foal was large and ungainly, and did not have cloven hooves nor even the bud of a horn, they knew of his mother's transgression, and shunned mother and child.

So she raised her son alone, teaching him the ways of the forest. Though he had not the perfect beauty of his mother, the foal was quick of mind and strong of body. She gave him the name Mahinia, which in the unicorn language means Most Great.

At that time, men were growing ever more numerous, and they cut away at the forest to make room for their farms. Year by year, the unicorns found themselves with less space to move and fewer glades in which to hide. Mahinia asked his mother why no one had tried to reason with men. She told him that this was not the forest way.

But Mahinia was a son of both the forest and the farm. When he was of age, he resolved to go to the realm of men and make peace with them. His mother let him go, for it was his right to choose his destiny, but she gave him this warning: His skin may be a horse's skin, but his heart was that of a unicorn, and like all unicorns, he could be tamed by a maiden of purity.

So Mahinia set out to the place where men lived. When they saw Mahinia, they thought him nothing more than a lost horse, and put him under bridle and saddle. He let them do this, for he wanted to gain their trust. Soon men came to value him for his courage, swiftness, and intellect, which of course exceeded all other horses. The name they gave him was Maximus, which also means Most Great.

Years passed, and Mahinia learned that though some men are selfish and cruel, others are honorable and kind. Among these latter, he made fast friends. But though he tried to tell them of the unicorns and their plight, no man could understand his speech.

One day while in pursuit of a thief, Mahinia's mother's warning came to pass. He met a maiden of utmost purity— a princess, in fact— and she tamed his heart.

Had he been purely a unicorn, this might have ended his story, for he would have had to do her bidding all his life. Yet, Mahinia was not only a unicorn, but also a horse. And as everyone knows, a horse has the power to tame a maiden. So it happened that Mahinia and the princess tamed one another, and she could understand him.

When the princess was married and no longer a danger to unicorn-kind, Mahinia brought her to his mother in the forest. The princess saw the unicorn's beauty, and she fell to her knees and wept. It is said that her tears healed the soil of the kingdom, making it ten times as fertile as the ground elsewhere.

So the princess swore an oath not to let men and their farms get too numerous, and to always ensure that her subjects left the unicorns to their business. This is why there are still unicorns freely roaming the Kingdom of Corona to this day, while in other lands they live only in fairy tales.

And what of Mahinia? As for him, he stayed among men for the rest of his days. For as it is said, in the land of horses, the very least of the unicorns is a king.


End file.
